President’s New Year Message 2016
Dear friends in IARF, Acts of religiously motivated crimes have been dominating the news during 2015. The fanaticism with which oppression and war are being pursued is viewed by many to stem from religious zeal. Now, more than ever, there is a need for IARF to speak out on peaceful coexistence for religions. IARF does […]
Persecution of Unitarians in Burundi
The International Council of Unitarians and Universalists, many of whose member churches are also members of the IARF – has reported on November 19 that Rev. Fulgence Ndagijimana, pastor of the Unitarian Church of Burundi, was arrested from the church at gunpoint, taken into police custody and interrogated severely, regarding the activities of his church …. was threatened with physical harm […]
New Office Administrator
Robert Papini, who has been the Office Administrator since 2003, has retired from the association as of this week. His duties were taken over by Łukasz Liniewicz, a resident of the Netherlands. Łukasz was appointed following a thorough recruitment procedure. Though we are sorry to see Robert go, and grateful for his contribution and support to our organization, we have […]
President’s New Year message 2015
Dear friends in IARF, The IARF World Congress 2014 in Birmingham, United Kingdom, has marked the end of a transition period in which IARF came to grips with the fact that it is currently an organisation run almost entirely by volunteers. We are fortunate to have retained financial support from many of our member groups, […]
Member group leader detained
On Thursday 5th December 2013, Sheikh Maytham Al Salman, Head of the Religious Freedom Unit in the Bahrain Human Rights Observatory (BHRO), and chairman of the Bahrain Interfaith Centre, an Associate member group of the IARF, was summoned to Al Hoora police station by the investigation unit of the Ministry of Interior Affairs, Manama. For […]
Bahrain: government violations during Ashura season 2013
Press Conference on Religious Freedom Violations during Ashura (November 2013) The Department for Religious Freedom in the Bahrain Human Rights Observatory has expressed its strong condemnation of the escalation of the pace of systematic violations on religious freedom in Bahrain during Ashura (November 2013), and the increasing number of official violations carried out by government […]
Bahrain Interfaith Centre, our newest associate
The IARF has recently (April 2013) welcomed the Bahrain Interfaith Centre as an associate member group. Contacts with this group have been established in 2012 through our representative with the UN ECOSOC in Geneva, Mr. Morse Flores. IARF welcomes groups that are multi-faith and that are working non-violently and peacefully to promote religious freedom. Groups […]
In the Name of the Lord: Understanding Blasphemy Laws
Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra serves as an Imam and Scholar of Muslim theology, and appears regularly in print and on television. In this piece, written for the Spring 2013 edition of Inter-Faith Matters, newsletter of the Edinburgh Inter Faith Association, Shaykh Mogra discusses Blasphemy Laws, a divisive topic that has seen recent protest in Edinburgh. A number of countries […]
Tehmina Kazi on Religion, Religious Freedom and Secularism
Religion, Religious Freedom and Secularism – by Tehmina Kazi This article appeared in the March 2013 edition of the IARF British Chapter’s Newsletter and IARF Peacemaking Commission News For the last three and a half years, I have been the Director of a registered charity named British Muslims for Secular Democracy. When I tell […]
Some current human rights concerns
28 May 2013It is often difficult to manage the tide of news on widespread violation of human rights around the globe. From Dr. Homi Dhalla, who was recently awarded recognition by the Government of Kazakhstan for his interfaith work, here is a of roll of recent incidents that offers a conspectus of some of the major human […]